How We Use Our Land Effects Our Waters
Meeting the needs of the community while protecting the well-being of the natural environment can be a challenging task. Scientists play a critical role in conducting research that provides essential information for the people who make decisions about how our land and our water are managed. The data they compile gives us a picture of the current health of our waterways and the ecosystems along them, and helps us forecast what may come in the future if certain choices are made. Julianna Brush is one of those scientists!
Meet Marine Scientist, Julianna Brush!
Every day, Julianna Brush monitors the Chesapeake Bay estuary to assess the impact human activity is having on the health the estuarine ecosystems. Her job takes her out on the water to collect samples, into the lab where she analyzes them and to the public where shares the information she finds with other scientists, government officials, politicians, educators, students and community members.
Marine scientists and research biologists, like Julianna, conduct "ecosystem assessments and make "ecological forecasts" that are essential tools for helping us understand and manage the water and land that we rely on for survival, enjoyment and economic opportunity.
Julianna was honored by WINGS WorldQuest with the Women of Discovery Field Research Award in 2006, for her field work to understand the effects of airborne African dust on the health of Caribbean coral reefs. Currently, she is a research biologist at NOAA’s Cooperative Oxford Laboratory in Oxford, Maryland and works on assessing the health of fish and other aquatic animals in the Chesapeake Bay, using molecular and toxicological and other biological methods, to support effective, long-term land-use and development planning in the Chesapeake Bay area.